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OUAT in Wonderland 1×09 “Nothing to Fear” Recap

Spoilers Ahead

When we left our favorites in Wonderland, Will’s selfless decision to wish for Alice’s happiness turned him into the new genie and forced Cyrus and Alice to work closely with the Red Queen to find him before Jafar does.

“Happily ever after can’t just be for us, it has to be for everyone, for all of wonderland.”

As the episode’s and show’s entire theme this particular quote was said remarkably by our beloved Alice and as far as plot twists and character development goes, this may have been the best episode yet.

The genie’s bottle Knave now resides in is found by the Lizard (Lauren McKnight); what was so incredibly fun to watch with their scenes was the back and forth wish sharing simply because they were enjoying themselves. Unfortunately their adventure takes an unpleasant turn when Lizard confesses her feelings for Knave and unintentionally winds up dead as she wishes for him to feel “at least something” for her. Magic really does come with a price doesn’t it? The most heartbreaking part of their short-lived journey was that she wanted to become everything he believed to be perfect in a woman and in the end, he couldn’t love her despite admitting that anyone would be crazy not to. There’s a much more valuable message being promoted through this moment, and it’s primarily that one shouldn’t ever want to change themselves for anyone they love – of course, there’s nothing wrong with becoming the best version of oneself as possible, but one should always remain as they are because someone somewhere is bound to fall in love with another’s genuine self. When a heart is clearly captivated by another as Will’s is, a person ideal on pen and paper isn’t always the one they’d go for. It can certainly be stated that a part of him still loves Anastasia deeply and that’s a prodigious reason as to why he doesn’t want his heart back.

The Red Queen finds the Lizard dead and takes the bottle back to Cyrus and Alice where she frees Will and ends up being his new master. Here viewers learn that Jafar is in possession of Cyrus’ two other brothers -both genies as well- and when he retrieves the last one, he’ll be unstoppable.

Meanwhile Jafar has taken over The Red Queen’s throne and after he hears about the Jabberwocky, he sets out on a quest to release it in order to retrieve the lost bottle. Instead of the horrendous beast we’ve read about, Once Upon A Time’s version is a powerful creature in human form.

For an episode with such heavy moments it was nice to see Cyrus propose in an exceedingly adorable way -I’m a huge fan of the cheesy fireworks proposal thing- could the finale be their wedding?!

However, my favorite part of this week’s episode undoubtedly has to be Anastasia’s speech about fighting alongside the good guys. Emma Rigby was remarkable in the final moment where she spoke with such a beautiful sincerity and allowed viewers to see her as the spontaneously gracious girl from flashbacks. It’s exciting to watch her come to terms with the fact that she hasn’t exactly been the most noble Queen, and since she has the power to do right again, she’s ceasing the chance to do so. Another lovely entity about her entire arc is the fact that it’s not just the Knave’s love and appreciation she longs for again, but evidently the genuine happiness that comes from being an honorable figure and living a life where someone doesn’t die every minute because of power.

The upcoming episodes of Once Upon A Time in Wonderland are bound to be exciting as the battle for Wonderland’s happiness is at stake.